


Just Close Your Eyes

by SpectralScathath



Category: RWBY
Genre: By the way go read my other story with an actual plot, Gen, This is just as a side thing for when I'm not working on Our Carefree Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 19:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15249984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpectralScathath/pseuds/SpectralScathath
Summary: Raven reflects on Vernal, The Spring Maiden, and the nature of strength.





	Just Close Your Eyes

Raven is the leader of the Branwen Tribe, and she is invincible. She’s stronger than anyone else. She’s stared death in the face and made death blink first.

It doesn’t explain why she’s here, walking alone through the ruins of a town that the Grimm destroyed. She’s a warrior, a fighter. She leads the raids, takes everything the town has to offer, and when the Grimm have finished the job, she sends others to scavenge for anything that was missed.

She’s not a scavenger. This was never her job. She only joined Qrow to keep her twin safe.

Qrow ruined everything. Coward. Traitor. Weak. They were meant to be together until death, and whatever came beyond, if anything did. Raven and Qrow. Qrow and Raven. The Branwen Twins, bringing murder and misfortune to anything that stood in their way. They were strong like no one else was.

So why did Qrow turn his back on her. He chose Xiao Long over their family. Was it fear that the Tribe would reject him again? Never. Not with Raven in charge.

She kicked a half collapsed wall, her aura powering the hit to make it crumble. He had the nerve to say she left, when she was just returning to where they belonged. Taiyang would be fine. He had Summer, and Yang. She knew that. She had seen them. One happy family, with another little brat on the way.

Summer was such a bitch, falling in love with Taiyang while Raven had him. She knew that Taiyang would be angry. He was good at anger. Didn’t he see that she was doing him a favour? Summer had been in love with him longer then Raven had cared to throw him a bone.

That was all it was, of course. Love was for fools. She wasn’t a fool. She was Raven. Smart, strong, and skilled.

Which was why when she heard pebbles skitter in the ruined building, she already was drawing a blade. She strode into the ruins of what seemed to be a dance hall, the sheer cold the ice dust radiated causing frost to creep up the hilt.

She listened, her steps silent as silk as she pinpointed her foe with ease. She drove her blade through the destroyed stage they hid under, the wood turning brittle enough that it shattered. Raven looked into the darkness and saw two angry blue eyes staring back. For a moment she thought of Tai, but no, these eyes had a much lighter hue. Like a frozen lake instead of a vast ocean.

She school her face into a sneer. “And who might you be?”

The girl, bony and thin, didn’t say a word, only holding up the sharp piece of wood that made a very lacklustre little weapon. A mop of brown hair fell over her face, knotted and tangled, full of just as much dirt as the amount that covered the feral little brat.

All in all, exactly what Raven did not need to deal with. Ever.

“I asked you a question. Who are you?” She levelled the tip of her blade to the girl’s nose, watching as the brown skin reddened slightly at exposure to the cold.

The girl glare defiantly at her, her age in that indeterminate age of too little and not little enough. She was definitely older then Yang would be though.

Raven gritted her teeth and sheathed her blade, walking out of the demolition zone. She didn’t look back. She never looked back. Not at Yang, and not at this little monster.

Children were a distraction from her duties. The Tribe came first. It wasn’t her problem.

Yang would be that size soon.

Fuck.

“You can either follow me or get eaten. Pick one.” The scurrying of small feet gave her the answer as the little girl stumbled beside her, far too thin in a way that reminded Raven of Qrow before they had names, giving Raven whatever morsels he’d managed to steal for himself because she’d finished hers too fast.

She would not let it happen to this child. Even if she didn’t know why.

* * *

Raven was not the one who found the runaway Spring Maiden.

It was the little Robber Girl who found her first. The feral, starving child who had brandished a stick like a weapon. She hadn’t earned a name yet, but Raven had done what the leader before her had not, and had treated her like she deserved to survive. It was her rule. One chance. The girl’s was to be fed and treated like a human being.

Raven had faith in the child’s spirit and survival instinct.

The girl hadn’t disappointed her yet.

She’d been scouting the area outside the camp, to find a place where Raven could train her. Somewhere that the girl felt comfortable enough in to learn to fight. Instead, she had come back with excitement in her eyes and energy in her steps, grabbing Raven’s hand and tugging her towards what she had found.

It sounded like the girl  had found something like a pet, similar to the way Summer loved animals. Raven shook her head of those thoughts and allowed the girl to pull her along. It was harmless excitement. Nothing that needed rebuking.

The girl stopped in the middle of a glen. “Okay! I found her! Are you still here? Please come out.”

Raven turned to look at the figure of a young woman who hid behind a tree, slowly leaving the security of being hidden. She was short, brown-skinned, and freckled, dark hair tied up in a bun. If Raven would estimate a guess, she would say that the girl was still a few years shy of being accepted to a Huntsmen Academy.  

Raven met her eyes, crimson locking with the green of sunlit grass, and the girl gasped in fear, her eyes catching fire in a way Raven had seen before.

This was a Maiden. This child was like her, forced into a role by Ozpin, her life irrevocably changed because she was unlucky enough to be cursed with magic.

Salem would hunt her to the ends of the earth for that magic.

“Who are you?” Raven’s hand fell to her weapon’s hilt.

If she knew her eyes were alight with emerald flames, then she either didn’t care or couldn’t control it. An untrained Maiden. “I-I’m a-”

“A Maiden.” But which one?

“You know about the Maidens?” She looked terrified. All that power and she was a scared child. Not like the girl who was standing to Raven’s right. Who had fire in her heart, not in her eyes.

“Which one are you? I’m not going to attack you. I don’t work for her.”

That caused the Maiden to relax slightly, the fire of her magic extinguishing with a hiss. “I’m Spring. You promise you don’t work for her?”

The Maiden was too trusting. It would be foolish to take her in. It would paint a target on all of them. But to have a Maiden in her hand, to have someone who could do the impossible. All that power benefiting the Tribe.

To help someone control her curse the way Raven had learnt to master her own.

To make the robber girl smile.

“I promise. Come with me and you’ll be safe. I’ll teach you how to protect yourself, and you don’t have to join Ozpin’s war.” She held out a hand. “They’ll never find you here.”

The Maiden took her hand.

* * *

Raven told herself it was mercy as she readied her blades, slotting them all into her weapon’s chambers. The Maiden, her Maiden, was weak and scared. She was too gentle to fight. Too kind to kill. With her magic, she couldn’t be weak.

Or else Salem would use her to bring about the end of everything.

It had to be done. Raven knew this. The plan was perfect. The Maiden trusted her, so hearing Raven’s portal meant she wouldn’t be scared. It would be painless. The Maiden and the robber girl were hunting together. They were always together. Whether it was for eating, exploring, training, or playing. The two were inseparable.

The robber girl was strong and clever, just like Raven was. She would be a good Maiden. She could protect herself and protect that magic. It was a curse, but Raven knew that the robber girl was strong enough to bear it, like Raven and her own magic.

The Maiden wasn’t strong. But Raven wished she was.

She didn’t want to do this.

But she had to. For the Maiden’s sake. For the sake of their Tribe.

It was mercy.

Taiyang would be disgusted with her, but he didn’t understand mercy. Not like that. He understood anger in a way only Raven could. It had been what drew them together. She wanted his fire, he wanted her heart.

It was a stupid mistake.

At least Yang seemed strong, with bright eyes, bright like the Maiden’s and the robber girl’s. Raven hoped Yang would be like her, and would stay out of Ozpin’s war. There was no victory against the Queen of Grimm.

Raven drew a red blade. The colour of burn dust. She never used burn dust anymore. She couldn’t stand the sight of its effects.

She didn’t need fire. She turned her back on her flame. She was lightning and ice incarnate, able to do what had to be done.

With a swish of her blade, she tore a hole in space to the Maiden. To the girl who trusted her with everything.

It was mercy, she told herself as she stepped through and watched the robber girl’s eyes light up with excitement. “Raven! Look at this flower she grew for me! Isn’t it beautiful?”

It was mercy, she told herself as she smiled at the robber girl and told her to go check the rabbit trap in the next clearing.

It was mercy, she told herself as the Maiden giggled, smiling at the  girl with the same fondness Raven had felt towards Qrow once upon a time.

It was mercy that the robber girl didn’t see. That the Maiden watched her go. That the girl would be the last thing in her thoughts.

It was mercy.

Not murder.

The Maiden’s eyes were wide and glassy, still that brilliant, vivid green. She went limp like a marionette with the strings cut, Raven’s blade piercing through her heart so fast she never would have felt a thing. Her head lolled forward as Raven pulled the blade out from her back, watching as an orb of light formed from the girl’s chest.

The robber girl was strong enough to survive. She would be a good Spring Maiden.

The power shot towards Raven before she could move, filling her veins with more heat then she had ever felt in her life. All that power. So much of it. She expected it to burn, but instead it was the gentle breeze of a spring day, the smell of pollen and fresh grass in the air, the peace of watching white clouds drift across a sapphire sky as the sun soaked her bones in warmth. It was fire and ice, earth and sky, wind and rain, light and dark. It was life itself.

Raven’s eyes caught fire, crimson-white flame crackling with power.

“No!” This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not like this. Not. Like. This.  It wasn’t meant to be her! Not Raven! She didn’t want this- this _curse_! Hadn’t she suffered enough? “No.”

She knelt down beside the Maiden’s body, reaching out and gently closing her verdant eyes. “I’m sorry. I hope you’re safe now.”

This was mercy.

She knew she was lying.

* * *

Raven felt tears on her cheeks as she stuttered out a miserable little apology, her daughter standing before her, stronger then Raven ever would be.

Yang hated her. She had taken the time to tear Raven apart with only her words, piece by miserable piece.

Vernal was dead. Her little robber girl, so full of fire and spark and life, was dead.

Because Raven was so clever.

Because Raven was so _clever._

Because Raven was a coward, who would rather the world chase Vernal for a title that the little robber girl would never have.

Raven barely heard Yang reply, already reaching out with her semblance as she tore a hole through space, choosing a bond as far away from Mistral, from Haven, from her daughter, from Vernal, as she could.

Her form became that of her namesake as she escaped, a single feather left in her wake as she ran away. She had done it before.

The portal opened into sunlight, so bright it almost hurt after the Vault. She was in Patch. She had come here so often, never in her true form.

She convinced herself that it was the right choice, to spy on her daughter in an avian form, never revealing herself, never telling Yang the truth.

Yang saw through her manipulations and her lies. Even the lies Raven told herself.

She really was her father’s daughter.

Taiyang did not look happy to see her.

Raven probably deserved that.


End file.
